China, Shanxi, Japanese occupied - Military Propaganda Flag welcoming Japanese troop commander - 1938

The Second Sino-Japanese War (July 7, 1937 to September 9, 1945) was the largest Asian war in the twentieth century. From 1937 to 1941, it was fought between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the Second Sino-Japanese War merged into the greater conflict of World War II as a major front in the Pacific Theatre.

Despite the fact that the two countries had been intermittently fighting since 1931, a full scale war only began, in earnest, in the year of 1937. It ended in 1945 largely as a result of Imperial Japan's surrender in the face of the United State's employment of atomic weapons during warfare. The Sino-Japanese war itself was the result of a decades-long Imperial Japanese policy targeted at widespread Asian domination and, particularly, to secure the vast resources of mainland China via military and political means. Simultaneously, the rise of Chinese nationalism and ideas of Chinese self-determination resulting from the collapse of the Qing Dynasty aggravated relations between the two countries. In the years before the official start of the war the two countries engaged in multiple skirmishes. In 1931, for instance, Japan invaded Manchuria (the Mukden Incident) and just before escalation into full-scale war in 1937 the two countries clashed during the Marco Polo Bridge Incident.

From 1940 onwards, the Japanese encountered tremendous difficulties administering and garrisoning the seized territories, and tried to solve its occupation problems by implementing a strategy of creating puppet governments favorable to Japanese interests in the territories that had been conquered; the most prominent being the Nanjing Nationalist Government headed by former KMT premier Wang Jingwei.

This flag is a Japanese army 'welcome flag' of occupied China. Japan set up a puppet government in China during Sino-Japanese war. This flag was made in December, 1938 so that the Chinese people might reluctantly welcome a Japanese army airfield defense commander. This flag was presented to the defense commander. The Chinese characters translate "Local defense".

There is the presenter's Chinese name written in the lower right; listing a village chief and other potentates. The name of the Japanese commander was Shigeru Sato and he was a field grade officer who headed the battalion. He was also a defense commander in the airport of China's Shanxi province. It was his arrival which prompted the manufacture of this welcoming flag.

Deaccessed, Bonhams Auction ARM24112MR, 12 November 2024


ZFC Significant Flag

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